Friday, July 7, 2017

Dieselpunk Manifesto Part Eight: Air Cavalry and the Flying Scotsman

We last left Buck being called out by an outlaw named Lariat Luke. Luke snakes a lasso at Buck from horseback but the Org outlaw surprises him by leaping out of the way (straight up). Buck takes Luke out with one punch to the jaw. the other outlaws tell Rogers they are going to give him what he's got coming to him.

They make Buck their Boss. Apparently promotions are pretty quick in the outlaws. Beat up the Boss and you're the new one. Wilma is all starry eyed at this point calling Buck wonderful. Impending canoodling is cut short by the Cyclone Kid announcing there is one outlaw Buck can't beat: a powerful mustang. Wilma has her doubts ("That brute will kill you!") Buck is more concerned with being perceived as yellow by the other guys and he jumps into the saddle. The insertion belt gives Buck all the advantage he needs. The horse bucks him off and then tows him around like a parade balloon until wearing himself out. Buck bows to the ovations.

Being Boss outlaw ushers in a happy time for Buck. He and Wilma begin discussing wedding plans. In Armageddon: 2419 they DID get married pretty early on, before the the Orgs even began their war with the Han.

Buck attempts to interest the cowboys in jumping belts but they seem to have an aversion to the newfangled stuff.

In the middle of all this though Lariat Luke staggers into camp riddled with bullets. Luke manages to relate that two of Boss Tabb's men shot him down on ground if him being an outlaw and them not being outlaws.

Angrily Buck radios Tabb and demands justice. Boss Tabb manages to stop laughing long enough to tell Buck that outlaws have no rights. Buck looses no time in organizing a reprisal. His outlaws swoop down on Tabb's outfit that very night and manages to take the Org by surprise. Buck demands 300 jumping belts from Tabb and Two Gun Pete demands that Luke's killers be hung.

We know Buck got the belts at least. Buck immediately puts them to use, strapping them onto a horse to see whether horses can benefit from inertron technology. He lets Wilma try riding the horse, which seems odd for a man trying not to appear yellow ("We'll just let the pretty little blonde try this out.)

The horse and Wilma make a leap of a full 500 feet. The outlaws begin learning to use the belts and outfitting themselves and their mounts. While Buck is trying to get them organized a few of the guys strap three jumping belts to their cook and send the poor SOB on a one way trip up. Buck grabs four belts to fly upwards even faster and save the cook and they return to Earth sacrificing five belts. I would have been pretty pissed at those jokesters, were I Buck.

While Buck was getting things back to normal a mysterious stranger calls on an outlaw outpost. Wearing a tartan kilt and cape the mustached stranger demands the sentry "Tak' me tae yer Boss!"

The stranger explains he is from the MacGregor Orgzone in Canada. We learn later he IS (Andrew) Macgregor and kind of a big deal. After winning all manner of awards for being the most Scottish in language and appearance MacGregor went on to command his Orgzone's air forces. But right now he's just Mac. Mac relates a report from his spies that might be of interest to Rogers.

Apparently the Mongol Emperor was so grief stricken at the loss of Wilma he went a on a rampage, fired his head spy and swore of booze for at least another day. Honestly the drawing of him in strip #78 makes him look more like he's hung over than suffering the pangs of unrequited lust. He might have also still been suffering from his bender and getting the snot beaten out of him by Lone Wolf. Considering the chief of the spy service should have known about such things we can see why he got the Imperial foot in his butt.

In the midst of the Emperor doing an impression of a pissy Cobra Commander his lackey announces a strange tribesman seeks audience and oddly the Emperor allows this. The strange tribesman is none other than Killer Kane: "Major Kane of the enemy forces." Kane relates that Wilma spurned him and he seeks revenge. In return for command of a squadron he will get her for the Emperor. The Emperor agrees and Kane swears he will henceforth be a Mongol.

As we saw a very fit runner could keep up with a man using a jumping belt. He'd just get tired way faster. Two Gun Pete saying he didn't need a jumping belt because he had a horse makes some sense. he could make better time but of course needs to see to the feeding and watering of the mount. On the other hand a horse could provide better warning of say, coyotes at night than your jumping belt.

Using a belt with a horse makes sense. If you don't have cars or planes a horse will do and a rider that effectively weighs a few pounds will not tire out Mr. Horse at all! besides that a horse jumping several hundred feet is just cool. I am not sure how hard the landing will be on the mount or how much training is needed. At the very least your horse could just walk normally with extra gear making up for the insertion carried.

The old western trope of the horse being shot and falling, pinning the rider under him is also subverted. The rider could easily pick up an insertion equipped horse and carry him to the vet.

There sure as hell is something going on with the insertion here. Grabbing more jumping belts makes you rise faster? One of the tricks the Americans never used insertion for (or did they?) use it to lift a spy satellite quietly and quickly into orbit to see where the Han raiders were. Because you know it's a better warning system than everyone screaming when half your Org gets vaporized or mashed flat.

MacGregor never had a given name in the strips. The High Adventure Cliffhangers Buck Rogers Adventure Game gives it as Andrew. Mac is a very cool character indeed. None of the outlaws scoffs at the man wearing a kilt.Kane reception by the Emperor is a strange meeting indeed. The Emperor is after all the supreme ruler of North America (on paper at least) and he didn't get there being a drunken skirt chaser. Handing a squadron over to some love lorn yobbo might send all kinds of messages to the viceroys and toadies in the court. There was a spy in the Columbus Org. It was not Kane, otherwise he would have opened with that and not his rank. It's possible this spy turned Kane and sent word to the Emperor and the squadron under Kane's command is a fiction to throw Kane a bone before he finds Wilma, hands her over, and then takes it in the neck from the Emperor.More troubling, the Bad Bloods were a constant problem for the Orgs. Did the Han use Americans and those of mixed race as mercenaries? I pointed out signs that there were people of various races living in the Han cities. The Buck Rogers Cliffhanger game supports this. Otherwise Buck would not have gotten very far in Los Angeles when he was looking for Wilma ("Hey stop that six-foot-three blond blue eyed Mongol!")More to the point Mac says his spies reported on Kane's meeting with the Emperor. If the Americans have such spies then there must be some interaction between the Americans and the Han, dayworkers, maintenance or whatever. The Americans might even have their own 'Han', children of mixed marriage who were shunned and turned to spying for the American cause. There might be American sympathizers among the Mongols, or Han social climbers eager to show up the Emperor to improve their own position.The Emperor's court is starting to look like a cross between Las Vegas and Caligula's reign.BTW The High Adventure Cliffhangers Buck Rogers Adventure Game states that Killer Kane's given name is Cornelius. Later strips established it as Nova, stated by his brother Coe. Yes, their parents named them Nova Kane and Coe Kane. I prefer Cornelius.

MacGregor's name is given as Andrew in the same game and for the record: Buck's given name is Anthony in Armageddon: 2419. I'd go with Anthony Buckley or Buckminster Rogers myself. That could explain the nickname. Then again, the way he bucks authority might be a better explanation.

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